India's first unmanned space mission scheduled for launch in 2022; Chandrayaan-3 moon mission in advanced stages of realisation

The first uncrewed space mission part of India's Rs 9,023 crore human space mission called 'Gaganyaan' is slated for the second half of 2022, the government said.

Answering a question raised in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh on Thursday said the test vehicle flight for validation of Crew Escape System performance and the first uncrewed mission of Gaganyaan are scheduled during the beginning of second half of 2022.

This will be followed by a second uncrewed mission and first crewed mission, Singh added.

According to him, the design of all systems of Gaganyaan has been completed. Realisation of various systems are in different stages of progress. Ground qualification tests of human rated launch vehicle (rocket) propulsion stages have already commenced and are progressing successfully.

"The configuration and design of ground infrastructure has been completed and modifications needed are being implemented. The MoU, contracts and Implementation arrangement (IA) related activities with both national and international agencies are progressing well," Singh said.

"Receipt of deliverables has commenced against contracts with M/s Glavkosmos (Russian Space Agency) for space suit, crew seat and View port. Also receipt of deliverables under various work packages of CNES (French Space Agency) IA has commenced," Singh added.

The activities related to development of microgravity experiments have commenced, the conceptual design for experiments is under review.

The astronaut training facility is getting established at Bengaluru and in an advanced stage of completion. Basic Aeromedical training and flying practice completed as part of the Indian leg of training.

The objective of Gaganyaan programme is to demonstrate the capability to send humans to low earth orbit (LEO) onboard an Indian rocket and bring them back to earth safely.

On the question raised about the status of India's third moon mission — Chandrayaan-3 — he said it is in the advanced stage of realisation.

All the systems in both Propulsion Module and Rover Module have been realised, integrated and tested. In the Lander Module, most of the systems have been realised and tests are under progress.

Integrated Sensors and Navigation performance tests on the Lander have been completed and other tests are in progress. All the identified tests will be completed before the launch of Chandrayaan-3, he said.

Chandrayaan-3 is targeted to be launched in the second quarter of financial year 2022 -2023.

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